Big Walk

House House spent three years following up Untitled Goose Game, and what they came back with is not another prank simulator. Big Walk is a cooperative “walker-talker” — a game about wandering a big, open world with 2 to 12 friends, solving puzzles together, and above all communicating. It’s a deceptively simple idea, executed with the studio’s usual precision, and it landed to universal acclaim.

Talking as a mechanic

The stroke of design genius is that Big Walk treats conversation as its core system. Distance-based proximity voice chat means friends fade out as you drift apart, and the puzzles constantly mess with your ability to talk — sound-proof rooms, separated routes, moments where you’re suddenly speechless and have to improvise with tools, signals and toys. Coordinating across a valley with a walkie-talkie and a lot of shouting is where the game finds its comedy and its heart.

It’s a multiplayer game where the memorable moments come from what your friends said, not what you shot.

The world itself is handcrafted bushland full of small discoveries, and the music is diegetic — carried by objects in the world rather than piped over the top.

The friction

There’s no friend pass, so a full group of twelve is twelve copies — at $19.99 each that adds up, which makes the launch discount and the PS Plus giveaway the smart windows. There’s also very little reason to boot this up alone, and Xbox players are shut out at launch.

Verdict

Critics were near-unanimous: 92 on Metacritic for PC, Mighty on OpenCritic with 91% recommending, and Steam reviews are Very Positive. If you have a group chat that plays games together, Big Walk is one of the best things you can spend an evening on this year.